The working life for most models is a far cry from the profession's glamorous image. Photograph: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

"Dangerous, degrading, unprofessional and demeaning", all categories of work which are now forbidden by Equity's new code of conduct for models, could equally be the title for a model's memoirs. We frequently face little or no pay, no food, no privacy when changing and ridiculously long hours.

The new code of conduct, which has been signed by Vogue, aims to make poor working conditions for models a thing of the past, promising no more than 10-hour days, food, water, breaks, insurance and transport – things that in most lines of work would be taken as a given. These all deal with basic human needs but the emphasis on "demeaning" and "degrading" acts that we occasionally face in our career is harder to combat – and more significant for the mental health of young models.

Having worked as a model for 10 years, I have worked with some wonderful people, travelled to beautiful places and contributed creatively to jobs I am proud of. However, I can recall many times in which I have complained after a shoot to models or friends about how I wasn't fed, worked past midnight, had to change in public or how I still haven't been paid from a job I shot last year. We can competitively swap anecdotes over the most absurd, cruel and offensive jobs; but we laugh about it, desensitised to just how abnormal our working life can be.

I spoke to one of my best friends, an international fashion model, and asked her how many of the basic 10 points from the new code she had been denied in her career. Unsurprisingly, she could say most of them, but revealed some more awful stories; of being forced to go to work in Hong Kong when there was a typhoon and not being allowed to leave a job after she'd contracted food poisoning. She told me of how a size 8 girl was asked to pay for her own retouching as she looked too fat. Similarly, I have found myself sitting semi-nude in an allotment wearing little more than ice skating boots, while quite literally every man and his dog strolled by. On said job, a 15-year-old girl was asked to remove her knickers as they were showing through the dress while the editor dismissed my objections by saying "no one is afraid of any pussy". Evidently, there is a need for protection that hasn't been there in the past.

It is a basic human right that workers should be fed, watered and rested, but how to deal with the "degrading and demeaning" is much harder and more complicated as it is subjective from model to model. There is a degree of self-sacrifice that one makes when modelling, and it extends beyond foregoing the odd biscuit. You are, to a certain extent, expected to divorce your body and "your look" from who you are. Most casting agents and photographers are kind and positive. I am lucky enough to have an agent who I trust, who consults me on which jobs I wish to shoot and who helps me fix professional situations that have descended into the unprofessional. What surprised me was the response of those outside of the industry to the desire and need for better working conditions.

The chair of Equity's models' committee, Romanian model Dunja Knezvic, told this paper how she once caught hypothermia on a fashion shoot and listed some simple and justifiable demands. While many of the comments were positive, it does seem that models are still perceived differently to other workers. I shall refrain from going into the "real woman" v "models" argument here, but she was accused of "moaning" and told she should be replaced by a mannequin. I can assure said commenter that, were it easier and cheaper, a client would have already done that. As long as models are seen as different to other workers in the public eye, they will be treated as such. Often people seem to see us as powerful super-humans who need not eat or rest, but rather than being lauded for our hard work, we are asked to work longer hours for less pay.

Heralding a new positive era for models, I hope that Equity's initiative is taken seriously and given the respect it deserves, as more of the fashion world signs up. I can see how modelling can seem trivial to some, but perhaps instead of hurling Zoolander and Bruno quotes at models (not least because we've heard it all before) and telling us to change career, we could change the working conditions? We are not asking for caviar and limousines, or to be mothered; we're just asking for what the average worker is entitled to.